ESSEX COUNTY — Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo Jr. and Sheriff Armando Fontoura said they won’t comply with a state commission’s order that sheriff’s officers must be reinstated to their administrative posts at the county jail. The officers won a ruling from the state Public Employment Relations Commission on Friday, having alleged late last year that the county...
Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo in this 2010 file photo.ESSEX COUNTY — Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo Jr. and Sheriff Armando Fontoura said they won’t comply with a state commission’s order that sheriff’s officers must be reinstated to their administrative posts at the county jail.
The officers won a ruling from the state Public Employment Relations Commission on Friday, having alleged late last year that the county skirted civil service mandates by not negotiating with the officers’ union before reassigning criminal identification duties to corrections officers.
Fontoura said he had "no intention" of complying with the order, which he said impedes his ability to assign officers.
DiVincenzo said the reassignments were meant to reduce overtime at the jail, which he put at $500,000 to $800,000 a year. He chided the commission for being out of touch with the state’s fiscal realities.
"We’re trying to make it not only better run, but also to save taxpayers money," he said yesterday. "What hasn’t changed is the way people at PERC think."
But the president of the sheriff’s officers union, Chris Tyminski, said the county’s move was retaliation for recent union successes, at least two of which the county has appealed.
"This is purely motivated by the bullies they’ve been," said Tyminski, who is a detective. "They don’t want to negotiate. They want to dictate."
He said that sheriff’s officers handled the key identification tasks at the jail since the 1930s. "All of a sudden we become incompetent?" he asked.
Should the county lose on appeal, DiVincenzo said he would be forced to lay off at least 15 sheriff’s officers.